Lucian T. Pera, a partner with the law firm of Adams and Reese, has been elected president of the Tennessee Coalition for Open Government (TCOG). TCOG is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that seeks to improve citizen access to public information and open government in the state. Pera has served as TCOG’s vice president since 2010 and a member of its board of directors since 2007.
Pera succeeds former TCOG president of eight years Doug Pierce, a partner with the Nashville, Tenn., law firm King & Ballow.
"Under Doug Pierce's steadfast leadership as president and Deborah Fisher's excellent work as executive director, TCOG has become the most effective broad-based voice for transparency in Tennessee state and local government," Pera said in a news release announcing his appointment. "We're poised to continue an important role in advancing government transparency in an era of increasing pressure for government secrecy."
Pera is a litigation partner in the Memphis office of Adams and Reese. He focuses his law practice on commercial litigation, media law and legal ethics work. His civil litigation practice includes a variety of commercial personal injury and intellectual property litigation along with numerous state and federal appeals. In his practice, Pera has represented Tennessee and national media outlets in a range of matters including those involving defamation claims and lawsuits; invasion of privacy; and access to courtrooms, public records and government meetings.
As a long-time member of the Media Law Resource Center’s (MLRC) Defense Counsel Section, Pera has authored the Tennessee chapters in two of the MLRC’s annual 50-state surveys of media and privacy law for almost 20 years. He also chaired the MLRC’s ethics committee for six years.
Pera chaired the Tennessee Bar Association’s committee that led the overhaul of Tennessee’s lawyer ethics rules. He was a member of the American Bar Association (ABA) commission that in 2002 thoroughly revised the ABA Model Rules on Professional Conduct, on which the legal ethics rules of every American jurisdiction except California are based. He currently chairs the ABA Center for Professional Responsibility, which houses the ABA’s ethics committee and other committees that work in the lawyer regulation arena.
A Memphis native, Pera is an honors graduate of Princeton University and Vanderbilt University School of Law.
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